Letter: Uncle Sam provides us with a lot

Posted: February 12, 2013 - 6:52pm

On the Opinion page (Editorial: Uncle Sam busts his budget, Jan. 24, amarillo.com), the editorial writer quoted an income study that reported a family with a husband, wife and two children needed an annual income of $38,468 a year to provide the essentials for the family. (Try that same family earning minimum wage for the year — $14,500 — they would have to work more than 2½ full-time jobs.)

The editorial was directed toward the taxes the family would have to pay ($246 a month), and concluded: “It would be a lot easier for hard-working Amarilloans — and taxpayers across the nation — to provide for themselves and their families if Uncle Sam would be a little more self-sufficient.”

Let’s see — to save that $246 a month the family would have to arrange and pay for full-time fire protection, full-time police protection, a military, costs of maintaining a school (including paying school teachers), its own septic system and water well, air-traffic controllers, road and highway maintenance, inspectors for foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, water quality and much, much more.

Of course, our government needs to work on efficiency, but I’m glad to have these services and more.